Application of “Notes on Romanticism”

Emphasis on the Imagination:

• Rip’s “fancy” must have deceived him – 985
• Rip’s mind played a trick on him – 986
   
• Sedgwick’s use of the imagination for writing stories – 1049
   
• Bryant’s “The Prairies” – the horse-rider imagining the past peoples
   
• Longfellow’s “The Fire of Drift-wood” – 1482
• Longfellow’s “My Lost Youth” – 1484

Emphasis on Nature:

• Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
• Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl”
• Bryant’s “The Prairies”

Emphasis on Some Form of Religion – Often Tied to Nature:

• Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
• Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl” – a higher power
• Bryant’s “The Prairies”

Emphasis on Death:

• Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
• Bryant’s “To a Waterfowl”
• Bryant’s “The Prairies”
   
• Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” – we shouldn’t be focused on death – 1477

Interest in the Past:

• Irving’s use of German folklore and Dutch History of NY State – 980, 986, 992
   
• Bryant’s “The Prairies”
   
• Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life” – don’t worry about the past
• Longfellow’s “The Slave’s Dream”
• Longfellow’s “The Fire of Drift-wood” – 1481, 1482,
• Longfellow’s “My Lost Youth” – 1484

Emphasis on the Strange, Unusual, Exotic, Unknown:

• Irving’s magical and fairy mountain – 981
• Irving’s ghosts, witches, and Indians – 982
• Irving’s sleepy stories – 984
• Irving’s description of the mountain – 985
• Irving’s description of the gnome – 985
• Irving’s use of strange and unknown – 985
• Everything around the returned Rip is strange – 987
• Rip’s explanation for what happened – 989
• The mountains are haunted – 990
   
• Sedgwick’s idyllic village of women – 1041
• Sedgwick’s “strange and long” stories – 1042-1043
• Sedgwick’s “art and magic” of writing – 1044
• Sedgwick’s writing subjects – the village, people of the village – 1046
• Sedgwick’s reference to Ichabod Crane – 1046
• Sedgwick’s writing subjects – “haunted towers or ruined abbey” – 1046
• Sedgwick’s allusion to Sir Walter Scott – 1047
• Sedgwick’s writing advice – 1049
   
• Longfellow’s “The Fire of Drift-wood” – description of the setting – 1481

Characters Larger Than Life:

• Irving’s Rip Van Winkle
   
• Cooper’s Leatherstocking
   
• Sedgwick’s Ralph Hepburn

Sentimentalism:

• Sedgwick – “I hate stories that don’t end in marriage” – 1044
• Sedgwick – the love relationship of Ralph and Alice – 1044, 1048, 1048
• Sedgwick – a love story that ends in marriage – 1050
   
• Longfellow’s “The Slave’s Dream” – 1480
• Longfellow’s “My Lost Youth” – 1486

American Settings:

• Irving's Hudson Valley in NY State
   
• Sedgwick's Quaint New England Village
   
• Bryant's "Midwestern" Prairies
   
• Longfellow's Atlantic Coast, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine

Emphasis on the Noble Savage:

• Freneau’s “The Indian Burying Ground”
   
• Bryant’s “The Prairies”

Emphasis on Action:

• Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”
   
• Longfellow’s “A Psalm of Life”